Plastics, due to their desirable properties have been the focus of continuous research to expand their uses and further enhance their properties. Attempts have been made to create stronger plastic materials by adding fibers, such as fiberglass to the plastic. While such fibers provide reinforcement, a significant amount of fiber, a minimum of 30% by weight, is necessary to provide the desired reinforcement and other mechanical properties. Also, the length of the fiber must be greater than 1 cm.; this creates processing limitations. The drawbacks of fiber reinforcement of plastics led to the use of smaller reinforcing agents in plastic. One such use was to add a finely pulverized polymer, poly-p-phenylene terephthalamide to thermoplastics polymer nylon 66. The polymers were physically melted and mixed while in the liquid state. However, the process was limited by the inability to achieve dispersion of the reinforcing polymer, that is, the poly-p-phenylene terephthalamide. Attempts have been made to co-dissolve the reinforcing polymer with the matrix polymer; and then to remove the solvent. However, this method has a significant drawback because the only solvents which dissolve both the reinforcing polymer and the matrix polymer are very strong acids.
An attempt was made to dissolve a high molecular weight liquid crystalline reinforcing polymer into non-polymerized precursors for a matrix polymer. The matrix precursors were then polymerized; the product was a polymeric liquid crystalline reinforced isotropic blend. Again, such a method is limited by the solubility of the reinforcing polymer in the matrix polymer precursor; this resulted in limited dispersion of the reinforcing polymer.
It would be desirable to have a composite material, a matrix polymer and a reinforcing polymer in which the reinforcing polymer is well dispersed in the matrix polymer thus forming a composite which displays enhanced mechanical properties.